Blaeu, Joan “Southerlandia.” [Southerland, Scotland]

Joan Blaeu (1596-1673).  “Southerlandia.”  [Southerland, Scotland].  From the Atlas of Scotland. 

Amsterdam: Joan Blaeu, 1654-1662.  16 ½ x 20 ½ (neat lines).   Engraving.  Original hand color.  Very good condition. 

In 1654 Joan Blaeu applied for a privilege to publish maps and descriptions of Scotland and received privileges from the State of Holland and West Friesland, Oliver Cromwell, and Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III. His source was a series of manuscript maps by Timothy Pont from his survey of 1596 to about 1600 with information added by Robert Gordon. Blaeu's maps replaced all previous ones and were printed in Latin, French, Dutch, German, and Spanish editions. They remained the best maps until corrected by the surveys of Bryce and MacKenzie in the period 1744 to 1750. Ref.: The Early Maps of Scotland to 1850. 3rd. ed. By D. G. Moir and a Committee of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. (Edinburgh, 1973) and Peter van der Krogt, Koeman's Atlantis Neerlandici. New Edition: II, 266-294.